Star Bandleader Artie Shaw Dies at 94
A volatile and superbly intelligent man, Shaw hated the loss of privacy that stardom brought, had little use for signing autographs and once caused an uproar by calling jitterbugging fans "morons." He later said he was just referring to the rowdy ones.
"I could never understand why people wanted to dance to my music," he once said. "I made it good enough to listen to."
He chafed at having to play "Begin the Beguine" ad nauseam, wishing audiences would be more willing to accept new material. ("I mean, it's a good tune if you are going to be associated with one tune, but I didn't want that.")
He retired from performing several times — finally putting down his clarinet for good in the mid-'50s. After that, he lived in Spain for a time, operated a farm, and turned to literature full-time. He was a voracious reader since childhood, and had already produced a well-received autobiography, "The Trouble with Cinderella," in 1952.
"I did all you can do with a clarinet," he said. "Any more would have been less."
R.I.P. Artie Shaw
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http://news.independent.co.uk/people/ob ... ory=597143
This obit. has some priceless stories -
It was on one of the trips to Paris that, now divorced from Kathleen Winsor, he met the film actress Evelyn Keyes, whom he married in Gibraltar in 1957. "He insisted on fixing toilet rolls to unwind from the front and not the back. Every time I change a toilet roll," she remembered years after their divorce, "I think of Artie Shaw."
Shaw and his mother quarrelled and had no contact for years, but when she died Shaw organised her funeral. At the funeral a raggedy man approached the rabbi as he gave his address. The rabbi brushed him off, but the man persisted. Eventually the rabbi paused and bent down to hear what the man had to say. "This is the deceased's brother," announced the rabbi. "He wishes to sing a lament."
"The minute I heard him," said Shaw, "I knew where my musical talent had come from. His singing was sublime." He welcomed his previously unknown uncle after the service.
A few weeks later Shaw was going through his mother's affairs with her lawyer. They found an invoice. It read "To singing lament at funeral, $400."
"I never spoke to the son of a bitch again," Shaw said.
This obit. has some priceless stories -
It was on one of the trips to Paris that, now divorced from Kathleen Winsor, he met the film actress Evelyn Keyes, whom he married in Gibraltar in 1957. "He insisted on fixing toilet rolls to unwind from the front and not the back. Every time I change a toilet roll," she remembered years after their divorce, "I think of Artie Shaw."
Shaw and his mother quarrelled and had no contact for years, but when she died Shaw organised her funeral. At the funeral a raggedy man approached the rabbi as he gave his address. The rabbi brushed him off, but the man persisted. Eventually the rabbi paused and bent down to hear what the man had to say. "This is the deceased's brother," announced the rabbi. "He wishes to sing a lament."
"The minute I heard him," said Shaw, "I knew where my musical talent had come from. His singing was sublime." He welcomed his previously unknown uncle after the service.
A few weeks later Shaw was going through his mother's affairs with her lawyer. They found an invoice. It read "To singing lament at funeral, $400."
"I never spoke to the son of a bitch again," Shaw said.
A great moment in chutzpah. I'm pretty sure, even if I was good, my sister would never pay me $400 (or today's equivalent) to sing at her funeral...She might pay me $800 not to.
Artie Shaw is one of those people who's more a name to me, though I know I've heard a lot of his recordings, in any case, there's no denying his influence. Still, I'm ashamed to admit I had thought he was already past on by now. Was he the last of the living big band greats, or am I forgetting someone?
Artie Shaw is one of those people who's more a name to me, though I know I've heard a lot of his recordings, in any case, there's no denying his influence. Still, I'm ashamed to admit I had thought he was already past on by now. Was he the last of the living big band greats, or am I forgetting someone?
http://www.forwardtoyesterday.com -- Where "hopelessly dated" is a compliment!